Attitudes towards Technology: Insights on Rarely Discussed Influences on Older Adults' Willingness to Adopt Active Assisted Living (AAL).

Background: European research policy promotes active assisted living (AAL) to alleviate costs and reach new markets. The main argument for massive investments in AAL is its potential to raise older adults' Quality of Life and enhance their freedom, autonomy, mobility, social integration, and communication. However, AAL is less widely spread in older adults' households than expected.

Are nursing home employees ready for the technical evolution? German-wide survey on the status quo of affinity for technology and technology interaction.

Background: Technological devices can support nursing home employees; however, their perspective is not sufficiently studied. Our aims were thus to (a) examine affinity for technology and technology interaction and related sociodemographic confounders, as well as (b) detect possible requirements and boundary conditions relevant for the development and implementation of assistive technologies among nursing home employees.

Methods: We conducted an online survey between May and July of 2022 among 200 nursing home employees in Germany.

Improving access to prosthetic limbs in Germany: An explorative review.

Background: Meeting the needs of users when it comes to accessing prosthetic limbs is an important factor in the acceptance and use of a prosthesis; the cost of such prosthetics also constitutes a potential financial challenge.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate potential hurdles to accessing limb prosthetics in the German health care system, including organizational, social, economic, and regulatory issues, and to provide food for thought about ethical implications.

Methods: Sixteen German users of limb prosthetics with upper-limb and/or lower-limb amputation were recruited by means of purposive sampling.

"That was not the discussion we wanted to have": Engagement of civil society organizations with synthetic biology.

Responsible Research and Innovation calls for comprehensive public and stakeholder involvement. Its specific requirements, however, have raised criticism concerning the limitation of engagement opportunities for actors like Civil Society Organizations that do not share mainstream perspectives on technological innovations. Our article investigates the engagement of critical Civil Society Organizations in public debates and dialogues on synthetic biology and asks how they contribute to opening up respective debates.

User types, psycho-social effects and societal trends related to the use of consumer health technologies.

Objective: The term consumer health technologies we use in this paper refers to fitness and health apps, wearables and other self-tracking devices that collect health-related data. Our paper aims to bridge the gap between the growing literature base of sociological research and ethical reflection on the (non-intended) effects of consumer health technology use on the psycho-social level, such as stress, responsibilization or a loss of intuitive sense for signs of health or illness. Special consideration should be given to vulnerable individuals, as the positive and negative effects of consumer health technology use may be unequally distributed.

"Are You a TA Practitioner, Then?" - Identity Constructions in Post-Normal Science.

Technology assessment (TA) is a paradigmatic case for the manifold and, at times, ambiguous processes of identity formation of researchers in inter- and transdisciplinary settings. TA combines the natural, technical, and social sciences and follows the multiple missions of scientific analysis, public outreach, and policy advice. However, despite this diversity, it also constitutes a genuine community with its own discourses, conferences, and publications.

Limited disease progression in endocrine surgery patients with treatment delays due to COVID-19.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted the delivery of care and timing of elective surgical procedures. Most endocrine-related operations were considered elective and safe to postpone, providing a unique opportunity to assess clinical outcomes under protracted treatment plans.

Methods: American Association of Endocrine Surgeon members were surveyed for participation.

An agenda for future Social Sciences and Humanities research on energy efficiency: 100 priority research questions.

Decades of techno-economic energy policymaking and research have meant evidence from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH)-including critical reflections on what changing a society's relation to energy (efficiency) even means-have been underutilised. In particular, (i) the SSH have too often been sidelined and/or narrowly pigeonholed by policymakers, funders, and other decision-makers when driving research agendas, and (ii) the setting of SSH-focused research agendas has not historically embedded inclusive and deliberative processes. The aim of this paper is to address these gaps through the production of a research agenda outlining future SSH research priorities for energy efficiency.

Stuck in the Present: A Human Lack of Ability to Visualise (Different) Needs in the Future May Hamper Timely Implementation of AAL and Supportive Technology.

Cities face an evident demographic change, making assistive technologies (AAL) an interesting choice to support older adults to autonomously age in place. Yet, supportive technologies are not as widely spread as one would expect. Hence, we investigate the surroundings of older adults living in Vienna and analyse their "socio relational setup", considering their social integration and psychophysical state compared to others (health, fitness, activeness, contentedness).

Drivers and Barriers for Implementation and International Transferability of Sustainable Pop-up Living Systems.

In the current urban system, characterised by a one-directional flow of resources from the rural environment to the cities, the construction sector plays a critical role in supporting the transition from a linear to a circular economy. In this framework, temporary pop-up environments act as an innovative and sustainable type of living system. These are structures conceived as temporary from the outset, based on characteristics like flexible light-weight technologies, fast and easy assembly operations, temporary occupation of the ground and adaptability to different uses, needs and target groups.

Let's Walk It: Mobility and the Perceived Quality of Life in Older Adults.

European policy and the research and development landscape put forward a number of arguments in favor of implementing "Active Assisted Living" (AAL) for older adults: it will improve older adults' quality of life, allow them to age in place, and keep costs for an ageing society down by exploiting new technology markets. The idea is that older adults who are supported by AAL and make use of assistive technologies will enjoy more freedom, autonomy, and mobility and also improved social integration and better communication. Yet, despite a history of more than 10 years of European research and development, the use of AAL applications is not as widespread as expected.

Cost-Effectiveness of Treatment Thresholds for Subsolid Pulmonary Nodules in CT Lung Cancer Screening.

Background Guidelines such as the Lung CT Screening Reporting and Data System (Lung-RADS) are available for determining when subsolid nodules should be treated within lung cancer screening programs, but they are based on expert opinion. Purpose To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of varying treatment thresholds for subsolid nodules within a lung cancer screening setting by using a simulation model. Materials and Methods A previously developed model simulated 10 million current and former smokers undergoing CT lung cancer screening who were assumed to have a ground-glass nodule (GGN) at baseline.

Algorithmic Profiling of Job Seekers in Austria: How Austerity Politics Are Made Effective.

As of 2020, the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS) makes use of algorithmic profiling of job seekers to increase the efficiency of its counseling process and the effectiveness of active labor market programs. Based on a statistical model of job seekers' prospects on the labor market, the system-that has become known as the AMS algorithm-is designed to classify clients of the AMS into three categories: those with high chances to find a job within half a year, those with mediocre prospects on the job market, and those clients with a bad outlook of employment in the next 2 years. Depending on the category a particular job seeker is classified under, they will be offered differing support in (re)entering the labor market.

A European nano-registry as a reliable database for quantitative risk assessment of nanomaterials? A comparison of national approaches.

Despite the fact that nanomaterials have been in use for decades and chemicals legislation is largely harmonised within the EU, quantitative and safety-relevant information on nanomaterials is still scarce. In particular, information about production volumes, their unique physicochemical properties (size, specific surface area, etc.) and nanomaterial exposure, which may lead to adverse effects on human health and the environment, is still lacking.

Precaution, Responsible Innovation and Beyond - In Search of a Sustainable Agricultural Biotechnology Policy.

The recent ruling by the European Court of Justice on gene edited plants highlighted regulatory inadequacy as well as a decades-old political problem, namely how to reconcile diverging expectations regarding agricultural biotechnology in Europe. Over time, regulators had tried out various tools to address concerns and overcome implementation obstacles. While initially focussing on risk (with the Precautionary Principle), they later tried to better embed technology in society (e.

Search engine imaginary: Visions and values in the co-production of search technology and Europe.

This article discusses the co-production of search technology and a European identity in the context of the EU data protection reform. The negotiations of the EU data protection legislation ran from 2012 until 2015 and resulted in a unified data protection legislation directly binding for all European member states. I employ a discourse analysis to examine EU policy documents and Austrian media materials related to the reform process.

The usual suspects: why techno-fixing dementia is flawed.

Dementia is highly prevalent and up until now, still incurable. If we may believe the narrative that is currently dominant in dementia research, in the future we will not have to suffer from dementia anymore, as there will be a simple techno-fix solution. It is just a matter of time before we can solve the growing public health problem of dementia.

Simulation as an ethical imperative and epistemic responsibility for the implementation of medical guidelines in health care.

Guidelines orient best practices in medicine, yet, in health care, many real world constraints limit their optimal realization. Since guideline implementation problems are not systematically anticipated, they will be discovered only post facto, in a learning curve period, while the already implemented guideline is tweaked, debugged and adapted. This learning process comes with costs to human health and quality of life.

Proposal of a framework for scale-up life cycle inventory: A case of nanofibers for lithium iron phosphate cathode applications.

Environmental assessments are crucial for the management of the environmental impacts of a product in a rapidly developing world. The design phase creates opportunities for acting on the environmental issues of products using life cycle assessment (LCA). However, the LCA is hampered by a lack of information originating from distinct scales along the product or technology value chain.

Adipose tissue and muscle attenuation as novel biomarkers predicting mortality in patients with extremity sarcomas.

Objectives: To assess CT-attenuation of abdominal adipose tissue and psoas muscle as predictors of mortality in patients with sarcomas of the extremities.

Methods: Our study was IRB approved and HIPAA compliant. The study group comprised 135 patients with history of extremity sarcoma (mean age: 53 ± 17 years) who underwent whole body PET/CT.

Cartoons on bacterial balloons: scientists' opinion on the popularization of synthetic biology.

How do scientists perceive the media coverage of synthetic biology (SB)? In this paper, we approach this question by studying a set of cartoons devoted to SB. Based on a categorization of the cartoons into five large thematic groups an international survey was carried out to assess the opinion of SB research groups on science communication with regard to the public image of their discipline. The 101 responses obtained indicate that in general, their perception of the communication is not negative, although many respondents raised concerns on the media's inclination to sensationalism and over-simplification.

Citizens' visions on active assisted living.

People aged 65 years and older are the fastest growing section of the population in many countries. Great hopes are projected on technology to support solutions for many of the challenges arising from this trend, thus making our lives more independent, more efficient and safer with a higher quality of life. But, as research and innovation ventures are often closely linked to the market, their focus may lead to biased planning in research and development as well as in policy-making with severe social and economic consequences.